Globular protein stability: aspects of interest in protein turnover

The conformational stability of globular proteins is remarkably low. Under physiological conditions, the native globular conformation is only from 5 to 15 kcal/mole more stable than unfolded conformations. In addition, small changes in the structure of a protein such as removing one terminal residue or cleaving a single peptide bond frequently lead to a substantial decrease in the stability. Likewise, single substitutions in the amino acid sequence can increase or decrease the stability by several kilocalories per mole. The low conformational stability of globular proteins and the sensitivity to small changes in structure suggest a possible role for conformational stability in the intracellular degradation of proteins. Several lines of evidence from in vivo studies of protein degradation are consistent with this idea.